gejala pokok | symptomatic trees

I haven’t updated about my seedlings for awhile, cause I reckoned they just need to be left alone to grow. But some of them have started to act a little strangely.

They’re all planted at the same time, are generally left to grow in the same place, with the same amount of watering, sun and air. So why is it that some of them are growing like crazy, while others just kinda hang about, looking depressed, stunted or dying?

Here’s the very first plant I grew from seed (minus the statice that didn’t survive transplanting), the celosia:

Look at their difference!! They were both transplanted at the same time, from the same initial pot, and have been left side by side at the windowsill. Haven’t added any fertiliser or sweet words to either of them.

I don’t know why one looks like it’s turning into a proper plant, and the other one is just stuck at first true leaves stage. Either way, it makes me smile lots when I see the happily growing one. Hopefully it’ll serve as some kind of encouragement to the other pot. I have one more flower box worth of celosia, transplanted from a different batch earlier on. It looks even more stunted than this one

Same story with the petunia. Came back after the weekend at Bali, and one of the three tiny pots seem to have grown lots. It looked quite a lot like the one on the left initially, but better in colour (not so bleached). Now it’s looking pretty bushy

My marjorams are the worst! Out of hundreds of teeny tiny seedlings, it looks like only one will survive. I’m going to give up on the one that looks like it’s about to cough itself into a dry death soon. Sigh… But at least the one that is surviving looks pretty damn strong!

Gosh, so embarassing… I am a bad gardener!
Next is my baby nepenthes, which is thankfully doing better.

It was in the studio under fluorescent light and a humidifier for a few weeks, and was generally doing well. Spotted it coming up with new leaves, and decided to take it outside. And yes indeed, a new true leaf has emerged into a pitcher! And I can see two more coming up. Yay!

Soooooo cute it is! Smaller than my thumb

The original bigger nepenthes on the other hand, still stubbornly refuses to pitcher. It keep shaving small tendrils that bulb out, but something is missing. Not sure what. Maybe it’s too much direct sunlight. Found some mushrooms sharing its soil too last week. Took them all out. Maybe the mushroom was just being greedy, sucking up all the nutrients. Hmm…

See. One little tendril struggling hard to be a pitcher. It’s pretty much at the same spot, but the smaller nep is underneath it, which means it doesn’t get direct sunlight for as long. Should try and move it to somewhere else…

And finally, the sunflower seedling that tukang kebun brought over - from the same batch that I killed but she managed to keep them going, even if they germinated belatedly - is very very super ultra happy. And it’s blooming! I could just see the bud today. So excited!! Can’t wait for it to slowly open up.

First plant to flower from seed

A weekend trip to Sungai Buloh ended up with 3 new additions to the balcony mini-jungle. A baby nepenthes  for me, a venus fly trap for us, and a weird little cactus for uhm… not sure whom.

so cute no?

So after finally getting the ‘bible of carnivorous plants-enthusiasts’ - i.e. the Savage Garden - I started reading up on the nepenthes. It’s one of the CPs that has given us most headache in terms of not wanting to pitcher or do much else except grow more and more leaves.

According to Peter D’Amato, the writer of Savage Garden, the name comes from the imagination of some Swedish dude who got a little over-excited when he first saw some dried specimen of the plant. He started waxing lyrical about Homer’s The Oddyssey, and likened the plant to the intoxicating effect of the ‘Nepenthe’ drug that Helen of Troy doused into soldiers’ flasks of wine to cheer them up. A little like the modern day ‘E’ maybe

This is what Linneaus said,

“If this is not Helen’s Nepenthes, it certainly will be for all botanists. What botanist would not be filled with admiration if, after a long journey, he should find this wonderful plant. In his astonishment past ills would be forgotten when beholding this admirable work of the creator!”

Not bad for a botanist hey? Apparently he was so adept at language that even Goethe and Rousseau were avid admirers.

(Sorry, I am also waxing something or other here)

So then, the chapter goes on to detail who’s who in the history of nepenthes’ naming, ‘discovery’ of new species, cultivators, thesis-writers etc.

What annoyed me was that this plant is mainly local to South East Asia and nearby regions, but all the names listed were predictably male, predictably European/’North’, predictably irritating.

Reminded me of the ridiculous claim that some white, male doctor ‘discovered’ the clitoris. We all knew about it all along, thanks very much, and have an intimate knowledge that does not necessarily need conquering or colonisation.

Grr…

I guess while the ‘natives’ were busy cataloging tulips and pine trees, the europeans were equally busy with their documentation of ‘exotic’ plants! Heh.

Anyway, I’m quite glad that I live an age where there is the internet. So found an updated list with at least some South East Asian sounding names for the species.

Okay, moment of rant now over, moment of rave about to begin!

So this cute little nep that we got has pitchers barely the size of my thumb. I don’t know what species it is. Too tiny to tell properly. And some of them don’t look so great also, with brown spots here and there. I’m putting it behind the flower box at the balcony, so it gets some sun and some shade.

According to the ‘bible’, most neps enjoy bright light, diffused with some shade. So hopefully this location would make it happy. We moved the bigger one to a shady spot, but I’m not sure it’s getting enough light. Hanging it back on the balcony where it gets direct afternoon sun for half of the day. Hopefully this wouldn’t cause it to burn!

So general requirements for neps are:

• Bright light, either diffused or with 50% shade (can get some of those black netting cloth things in green houses).
• Lots of water that can drain through the pot, and frequent misting on the leaves.
• Temperatures from 15 - 21 degrees celcius at night, and mid-20s to 30s degrees, depending on the species.
• High humidity
• And a curious reference to a possibly useful, or not, product called SUPERthrive

In desperation, i posted a cry for help at gardenweb.

Posted by mukaketupat Malaysia (My Page) on

Sat, Apr 28, 07 at 10:16

Hi everyone,

I hope someone is kind enough to help me. I got a pitcher plant for a gift for christmas. It was in a small pot with about 4 pitchers. I left it hanging on the balcony, gets about 2-4 hours sun everyday. All the pitchers dried up in less than a week. I mist it at least twice a day and kept the soil moist. Spray it with liquid organic fertiliser once in two weeks.

Its been 4/5 months, the leaves are twice as much, but no pitchers at all. I’ve just repotted it last night with a mix of sphagnum and moss, and theres a lot of baby leaves coming out from the roots.

So i dont know what this means? At the end of every leaf, theres like a small hook that looks like it could potentially be a baby pitcher, then it turns brown..

So what should i do next? Where do i go from here?

Here’s the respond that i got..

Posted by mutant_hybrid (My Page) on Sat, Apr 28, 07 at 12:58

Hello mukaketupat,

I take from the description it is an Asian Pitcher Plant of the Nepenthes genus? What exact species is it?.. Was it from a hardware store, bought from a nursery, or ordered online? Some species are more difficult to get to pitcher than others.

1. Light: Nepenthes like a lot of light, but can do with partial light, like what they would get under a tree. Some shade. Full sun is not necessary, but good partial light is. Without enough light, the plant will not make pitchers.

2. Humidity: When Nepenthes are first bought and taken from higher humidity to lower humidity, they loose their pitchers. If you had a higher humidity, or the same as what the plant had to start with, it would have kept it’s pitchers. It will have to get used to your humidity, which it should have done by now after 4-5 months.

3. Water: Make sure the plant gets distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water with all the minerals extracted. Hard water of over 50-100 will harm the plant and eventually kill it. Make sure the soil remains moist, but never dry or waterlogged. Do not keep the planter in a tray, let the excess water drain out. You can catch the excess water to use on the Nepenthes later, in a couple of days, thats no problem.

4. Soil: Nepenthes like their soil loose and with good drainage. The sphagnum peat moss is good, but you might want to add some perlite or orchid bark and coconut husk to it to give good drainage. About one third peat moss with two thirds perlite or one third each of peat moss, bark, and coconut husk would be good. There are other soil mixes you can use that would work just as well. So long as the soil is acidic, what the peat provides, and drains water fast and gives air to the roots. Make sure none of the ingredients you use in the soil or water have fertilizers, minerals, or salts added.

5. Fertilizer: While it is possible to fertilize Nepenthes, it should be done by weak foliar feed wiped on their leaves with a damp cloth or cotton swab in a 1/4 or less solution of orchid blood meal fertilizer once every two weeks or once a month. It is very easy to kill a carnivorous plant by fertilizing, so less is better. Never add fertilizer to the soil as that will weaken and kill the plant eventually. Sometimes growers will use fertilizer on the Nepenthes leaves when they loose their pithcers as this helps to stimulate pitcher production. Once it makes pitchers, stop fertilizing and the plant will catch it’s own insects.

Some problem areas to consider are that Nepenthes are allergic to copper, so any chemicals or water sprayed in the soil or on their leaves should not contain copper or any other minerals like calcium or magnesium or potassium salts found in hard water. Copper sprayed on their leaves, like in copper based fungicides, would inhibit pitcher production. If you use pesticides use pyrethrines, and if you use fungicides on the plant, only use sulfur or neem oil based products. There are some other ideas for fungicides, but the idea is to make sure no dangerous minerals or fertilizers get on the plant.

You indicated that baby leaves were growing from the roots, this tells me that your plant is getting ready to vine. It will send up several new shoots and start growing longer. It might be saving energy to vine so it might not produce pitchers while it does this. As long as it makes new leaves and grows, it is ok. Keep giving the plant what it needs and it should start pitchering in a couple of months.

Thank you so much for the word of advice and recomendations. Took some photos for mutant hybrid this morning…maybe more info will help.

A wide view of my pitcher plant

Fertiliser - 100% organic, that i’ve been spraying on the leaves of my pitcher plant once every two weeks. Nothing dodgy in any of the ingredients, i hope..

Seen on almost all the leaves. Just a tiny bump of something, but no pitchers so far.